Evacuation Plan

Section I: Building and Personnel Information

Please see Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Building evacuation maps for detailed information regarding your particular location.

Designated Meeting Site(s) for Building are: Outside on the patio, west side of Eisenhower Auditorium

Designated Assisted Evacuation Staging Areas for the Building are: Center stairway landings ground floor and second floor east wing; Stairway landings second-floor and third-floor glass tower

Section II: Emergency Phone Numbers

• Emergency (Police, Fire, Ambulance) 911
• University Police 814-863-1111
• University Health Services 814-865-6556
• Environmental Health and Safety 814-865-6391
• Physical Plant Work Reception Center 814-865-4731

Section III: Purpose and Objective

Potential emergencies such as fire, explosion, spill, chemical releases, and all other emergencies may require employees to evacuate the building. An Emergency Evacuation Plan and adequate occupant familiarity with a building minimize threats to life and property. This Emergency Evacuation Plan is intended to communicate the policies and procedures for employees to follow in an emergency situation. This written plan should be made available, upon request, to employees and their designated representatives by the Building/Department Emergency Coordinator or the Unit Safety Officer for the building.

Section IV: General Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to this Emergency Evacuation Plan:

• Stairwells are the primary means of evacuation. Elevators are to be used only when authorized by a fire or police officer.
• No employee is permitted to re-enter the building until advised by the Fire Department, PSU Police or EHS Representative.
• This Emergency Evacuation Plan will be coordinated with efforts in multiple-use buildings. Mutually beneficial agreements can be reached regarding Designated Meeting Sites and shelter in the event of inclement weather. 

Section V: Responsibilities of Safety Officer, Building/Department Emergency Coordinator and Safety Monitors

The Unit Safety Officer is responsible for:

1. Annually insure plans are reviewed and updated as needed.
2. Provide written confirmation to EH&S that plans have been updated and in compliance with all requirements.
3. Appoint Building / Department Emergency Coordinators in coordination with Administrative Unit Leaders.
4. Designate Safety Monitors and in coordination with Building / Department Emergency Coordinators

The Building/Department Emergency Coordinator is responsible for:

1. In conjunction with the unit Safety Officer, designating Safety Monitors and alternate Safety Monitors for specific work areas in the facility.
2. Overseeing the development, communication, implementation and maintenance of the Emergency Evacuation Plan.
3. Ensuring that floor plans and route evacuation maps are posted.
4. Ensuring the training of building occupants, Safety Monitors, and Critical Operations Personnel, and notifying all personnel of changes to the plan.
5. Maintaining up-to-date lists of building occupants for each Safety Monitor’s area of coverage, Critical Operations Personnel, Listing of Individuals requiring Evacuation Assistance and any other personnel with assigned duties under this plan. Lists are included in Appendix I.
6. In the event of a fire or other emergency, relaying applicable information to emergency personnel, occupants and Safety Monitors.

Safety Monitors are responsible for:

1. Familiarizing personnel with emergency procedures.
2. Acting as a liaison between management and their work area.
3. Knowing where their Designated Meeting Site is and for communicating this information to occupants.
4. Ensuring that disabled persons and visitors are assisted in evacuating the building or moved to a predetermined staging area (Assisted Evacuation Staging Area).
5. Performing responsibilities to ensure that all persons are accounted for during an evacuation as identified in Section X.
6. Evaluating and reporting problems to the Building/Department Emergency Coordinator after an emergency event.
7. Posting the “Building Evacuation Floor Plan” (Appendix II) in their work areas, communicating the plan to occupants, and updating the plan annually.

Section VI: Alerting or Signaling Building Occupants in Case of Fire or Other Emergency

1. In case of a fire, employees should actuate the nearest fire alarm pull station and/or make a telephone call to 911. The locations of the fire alarm pull stations are noted on the Building Evacuation Floor Plans in Appendix II. The horn strobe alarm alerts building occupants of the need for evacuation and sends a signal to the PSU Police Dispatch Center that there is an alarm condition in the building.
2. It may be necessary to activate additional fire alarm pull stations, or verbally announce the alarm, if people are still in the building and the alarm has stopped sounding, or if the alarm does not sound. This should be done while exiting the building.
3. Persons discovering a fire, smoky condition, or explosion should pull the nearest fire alarm pull station. Any pertinent fire or rescue information should be conveyed to 911. All emergency telephone numbers are listed at the beginning of this Emergency Evacuation Plan.
4. To report all emergencies, employees should call 911. State your name, your location, and the nature of the call. Speak slowly and clearly. Wait for the dispatcher to hang up first. On occasion, the dispatcher may need additional information or may provide you with additional instructions. Make this call from a safe location.

Section VII: Evacuation Procedures for Building Occupants

1. When the fire alarm sounds, occupants should ensure that nearby personnel are aware of the emergency, quickly shut down operating equipment (e.g., compressed gas cylinders), close doors (DO NOT LOCK) and exit the building using the established evacuation routes.
2. Occupants shall assist visitors, students and others who are not familiar with the plan to safely evacuate.
3. If you have been identified as having responsibility for Critical Operations Shutdown, refer to Section IX.
4. All occupants should proceed to the West Side Patio of Eisenhower Auditorium and await further instructions from their Safety Monitor.
5. All personnel should know where primary and alternate exits are located, and be familiar with the various evacuation routes available. Floor plans with escape routes, alternate escape routes, exit locations and Designated Meeting Sites are located in Appendix II and are posted in the building.
6. Building occupants must NOT use elevators as an escape route in the event of a fire.

Section VIII: Disabled Occupants

Employees requiring assistance upon exiting are listed in Appendix I however there may be disabled visitors in the building that also require assistance. The Safety Monitor must identify individuals needing assistance, attempt to locate individuals to assist in the evacuation or in relocating to the Assisted Evacuation Staging Areas and notify the emergency response personnel of the person’s location. Transporting disabled individuals up or down stairwells should be avoided until emergency response personnel have arrived. Unless imminent life-threatening conditions exist in the immediate area occupied by a non-ambulatory or disabled person, relocation of the individual should be limited to a safe area on the same floor, in close proximity to an evacuation stairwell. Within the room, there should be provided a flashlight, towel for hanging out the window or bright colored marker to mark windows that cannot be opened.

Penn State University Safety Policy SY02 “Handicapped Identification Decals for Individuals Requesting Assistance” is a voluntary procedure to provide visual identification of an employee work area for emergency responders and to provide Penn State Police with information for prompt evacuation assistance.

Section IX: Critical Operations Shutdown

Critical Operation Shutdown: Critical operations, including equipment that must be shut off and persons designated to complete these actions are identified in Appendix I. Procedures for rapid shutdown should be predetermined for life safety and loss control purposes, as well as ensuring complete evacuations in a timely manner. Individuals should never jeopardize their own health and safety to complete the Critical Operations Shutdown.

Section X: Accountability Procedures for Emergency Evacuation

Once each evacuated group of employees has reached their Designated Meeting Site, each Safety Monitor shall:

1. Take headcount of his or her group using the building occupant list for those employees in their area of coverage
2. Assume the role of department contact to answer questions
3. Instruct personnel to remain in the area until further notice
4. Report status to Building/Department Emergency Coordinator or Incident Commander including persons who are located in the Assisted Evacuation Staging Area or have remained behind for Critical Operations Shutdown.

Section XI: Rescue and Medical Duties

The Fire Department and University Police will conduct all rescue and medical duties and/or will coordinate with Emergency Medical Services.

Section XII: Training and Communications

The Building/Department Emergency Coordinator is responsible to ensure that all personnel are trained in safe evacuation procedures. Refresher training is required whenever the employee’s responsibilities or designated actions under the plan change, and whenever the plan itself is changed.

The training shall include:

• The plan’s purpose,
• Preferred means of reporting fires and other emergencies,
• The type of building alarm system,
• Emergency evacuation procedures and route assignments, including procedures for those unable to evacuate themselves,
• Procedures to be followed by employees who remain to control Critical Operations Shutdown before they evacuate,
• Procedures to account for all employees after emergency evacuation has been completed, and
• Who performs rescue and medical duties
• The training shall include the use of the floor plans and evacuation routes given in Appendix II of the Emergency Evacuation Plan. 

Training on the Emergency Evacuation Plan can be performed during events such as work unit new employee orientation, employee briefings, discussions at faculty/staff meetings, internal work unit newsletters and emails, etc.

It is suggested that drills be conducted annually. EHS is available to assist with tools for training building occupants in the Emergency Evacuation Plan as well as evacuation drills.

Work units may also choose to provide Evacuation Quick Reference Cards for employees. These cards provide essential information on emergency contacts and designated meeting sites. A sample card is provided in Appendix III and can be customized as needed.